HAYAO
MIYAZAKI's PONYO (shortened from GAKE NO UE NO PONYO,
lit. PONYO ON TOP OF THE CLIFF) is STUDIO GHIBLI's
latest movie to hit stateside, and it's been doing
very well, not to anyone's surprise. The film
reached 9th place in the U.S. box office charts in
its first week, with an estimated $3,506,000 in
earnings, which makes it the 8th highest grossing
theatrical anime release in the United States. The
combination of being completely hand-drawn and being
shown immediately after a string of trailers for
DISNEY / PIXAR's upcoming 3D-CGI films, almost does
itself a disservice, making it seem like a dated
film, but MIYAZAKI wouldn't do it any other way. He
even had the CG department at STUDIO GHIBLI
dissolved before the production of PONYO began.

As usual with most of MIYAZAKI's films and other
anime features that cross the Pacific, PONYO is
unfortunately only available in theaters with an
English language dub. A core concept of art
appreciation that I usually insist on is that it's
always best to listen to the original language dub
for any type of visual media, be it live-action
movies, TV series, animation, and even video games,
simply because it's the format that best preserves
the creators' original vision. Once foreign media
becomes localized, a sense of exoticism and the
nuances present in the creators' original language
becomes lost.

Individual tastes aside, DISNEY brought along a
high-profile cast for the English dub, which no
doubt helped out in spreading its popularity for
those who aren't familiar with anime. Among them are
LIAM NEESON, voicing Ponyo's father, NOAH CYRUS (MILEY
CYRUS' little sister) voicing Ponyo the goldfish
herself, and FRANKIE JONAS (who's older brothers are
the JONAS BROTHERS) voicing Sousuke, Ponyo's love
interest who is a 5-year old boy. The dub was quite
conservative for a modern film, although it was a
bit over-the-top at times, particularly during the
action sequences. While I definitely appreciated the
fact that the English script included
Japanese-language idioms (the “-san” suffix after
names to indicate seniority, the word sensei, or
“teacher”), the constant mispronunciation of
“Pon-yo” as “Pan-yo” made me cringe.

How does MIYAZAKI's new masterpiece stand up against
DISNEY's classic THE LITTLE MERMAID? They're both
adapted from the same source material, CHRISTIAN
ANDERSON's THE LITTLE MERMAID (1837). Yet, PONYO,
which was created using completely traditional
means, seems more up-to-date and culturally relevant
than DISNEY's take, which had the help of computer
animation and other means of creating special
effects for its time. The former even touches
prominent sociocultural issues ranging from nursing
homes (called “senior centers” in the movie) to
pollution, in a way that doesn't require preachy
dialogue. While one might be able to find multiple
similarities between the two films (or between PONYO
and PIXAR's FINDING NEMO), having the setting in
modern-day Japan and using cultural items (instant
noodles, anyone?) is enough to make MIYAZAKI's
vision unique. They both deviate from the plot of
the original novel quite a bit, but after watching
PONYO, it's apparent that it is a less Romanticized
interpretation since the focus is more about Ponyo's
curiosity and learning about the human world, rather
than a love story.

As marvelous as it is, PONYO has some slight
problems in its storytelling. The biggest issue I
had was the main conflict in the story, which is
that PONYO's absence from the ocean essentially
brings the entire world “out of balance”, but the
reason why is never explained. In similar fashion,
we learn through the dialogue of Ponyo's parents
that the “balance of nature” will be restored if
Sousuke can prove that his love for Ponyo is pure,
and although things work out to the victory of our
protagonists, it's never explained how the purity of
his heart was determined. Older viewers might have
problems taking these plot-holes granted but overall
the fact that the lead characters are a goldfish and
a 5-year old boy excuses the need for logic and
back-story, as young viewers in the same demographic
as Sousuke will be engrossed in the gorgeous
visuals, humor and fast-paced action sequences. In
the end, things don't need to make much sense when
you're 5-years old. While this movie is suitable for
family viewing, it should be noted that there are
some potentially frightening sequences in the film
which might scare younger children. Nevertheless,
MIYAZAKI somehow finds ways to inject subtle devices
of comic relief in those scenes to lighten the mood.
I found the juxtaposition of a happy Ponyo running
on top of violent fish-like waves to be a very weird
but cute element in film.

MIYAZAKI's
long-time, feature composer, JOE HISAISHI, brings us
an enthralling score once again, but in a much more
upbeat fashion compared to the last few GHIBLI
films. As cliché as it might sound, the two go
together so well that they might loosely be
considered the STEVEN SPIELBERG and JOHN WILLIAMS of
anime feature films.

We haven't heard a theme song this happy since MY
NEIGHBOR TOTORO. As this film was geared toward
younger audiences, HISAISHI made the right choice by
making the main theme jovial and playful. Keeping in
mind that this is a film mostly dedicated to
children, HISAISHI tries to set moods as cheerful as
possible (since Ponyo always seems to be in a happy
mood, especially when she's around Sousuke), but
when scenes require suspense and fright, he doesn't
hesitate to reflect it in the score, yet the action
scenes never really draw too much attention to
themselves.

Despite the movie being set in Japan, HISAISHI stays
away from the pentatonic melodies and harmonies that
we associate so much with Japan and the Far East,
and his score sounds far more Westernized than his
previous works such as PRINCESS MONONOKE and
SPIRITED AWAY. The soundscape used throughout the
movie is more of a combination of TOTORO and HOWL'S
MOVING CASTLE. The PONYO theme makes leitmotif-style
reprises every time Ponyo appears in a new scene,
changing slightly in character as she morphs between
fish and human throughout the movie. HISAISHI makes
much use of wordless choir, which is something he
doesn't do quite often.

HISAISHI pays homage to a few Western art-music
composers, and proves that he is great at absorbing
their styles. Most of the stylistic features of the
soundtrack are in the style of RICHARD WAGNER's
music-dramas. There's a heavy direct influence from
“Ride of the Valkyries” for the action sequences,
such as the track “Flight of Ponyo”. HISAISHI also
sprinkles traces of the same Impressionistic,
DEBUSSY-style harmonies reminiscent of his work on
SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE into some of the
cues, such as “Fujimoto”, “Tunnel”, “Sousuke's
Tears” and “Finale”. Several cues are fusions of
both styles, such as “Granmanmale”, which starts off
much like DEBUSSY's “Prelude to an Afternoon of a
Faun” with a flute solo, and then transitions into a
huge Wagnerian music-drama ensemble, complete with
vocal chorus and full orchestra.

Otherwise, HISAISHI follows his usual orchestral
conventions, using a lot of strings for melodic work
and piano, which he always plays himself. While most
of the music is in major, there are some dark
moments, which the composer handles brilliantly with
celesta and various percussion. The celesta is also
used in a more innocent context, in tracks like
“Ponyo's Lullaby”. Overall, even with his usual
conventions, this score sounds much more Germanic
than anything HISAISHI has ever done before, which
is fitting for a story that was originally penned
from a Danish author.

If you're going to watch the film in theaters, be
sure to stay for the end credits, because instead of
a black screen, there is a very beautifully animated
montage in the background. The credits start with
“WE MADE THIS MOVIE”, and has hand-drawn icons next
to each of the staff member's names as the ending
orchestral theme plays. What I found very noble was
that there were no job titles to indicate what each
staff member did, and that omission implied that
each staff member's work was equally critical to the
production of this feature, and no member was
inherently less important than either MIYAZAKI or
HISAISHI.

It would have been perfect except for a most
unwelcome intrusion by DISNEY regarding a major edit
to the soundtrack. Where the orchestral ending would
normally transition to the original Japanese version
of the Ending Theme Song, DISNEY replaced it with an
English, pop-rock-techno version, courtesy of NOAH
CYRUS and FRANKIE JONAS. As if making an English dub
for the film wasn't intruding enough, the whole
song, filled with synth programming, is completely
out of character with the rest of the score and
movie. It sounds like a bad “Radio Disney” remix,
and I wish they hadn't bothered in the first place.
I hope they leave the original version intact, at
least for the Japanese language track on the DVD/
Blu-ray release, which has been estimated to be
sometime in December. The original singer, 8-year
old Nozomi Ōhashi, sings quite out-of -tune, but
even so, I think it reflects PONYO's innocence and
curiosity during her “maiden voyage” as a human.

No domestic release of the soundtrack has been
confirmed yet, but the import version is available
on Amazon.com, and 34 out of 36 tracks are available
for streaming on Imeem.com.

If you can stand a mediocre English dub, PONYO is
definitely worth catching in theaters. PIXAR's UP
has a real contender for the next Academy Award for
Best Animated Feature Film, but regardless of
whether PONYO wins the award, it is a masterpiece in
its own right. In the words of the online gaming
community, PONYO is “pure pwnage”.

Vince
Chang is currently a music
major in California State
University at Fullerton, a
violinist, and is also
Tracksounds' resident anime
expert. (vcmusik AT
tracksounds DOT com)